Update and Elevate

It is hard to let go of things that you love but when you are ready to get rid of them you cannot get rid of them fast enough. You can love your dining room furniture for forty years and then one day you just look at it and decide that you want something new. The top questions for the last twenty years have always been, “How can we make this space lighter and brighter?” and “how can we make this space look bigger?” These homeowners were ready for everything to change to light, bright, and big so they sold all the old stuff and started fresh. Let’s peek into the dining room of a Gardenia model to see the light, bright, and big new look somewhere in the heart of The Villages.

  •  Remove the column
This model usually has a column and an arch to define the dining room without walls. The arch and columns looked nice, and they did provide visual separation from the other rooms. However, as of the past five years many customers totally agree that the column should be removed. The newer versions of this model are built without a column. If you are reading this and you have the column, removing the column updates the house by removing the barrier and making the space a true open concept home. The best time to remove the column is before you install new flooring. The column can be removed, and the flooring can be be laid seamlessly. However, if you do remove the column after you have flooring installed you need to have extra flooring to fill in the hole left by the column. Most of my clients find just enough flooring in their garage to fill in the holes. You will be amazed how much bigger the space looks without the column. I always remind my customers that they wanted to update, and the removal of the column is an update.

  •  New flooring
The homeowners had selected a wood-look tile for the space. The tile blended nicely with the tile in the bar area. I love that they chose tile so that there was no threshold. If you are thinking of replacing your flooring and you do not want to pull up the tile in the entrance and kitchen, then the best flooring applications for that situation is tile or engineered hardwood. They can both be installed without thresholds. No thresholds mean no trip hazards!

  •  Paint
The walls needed to be repainted and toned down. The new paint was Patience 7555 and I usually consider it to be a perfect crème. The color is a tan with rich golden undertones which complement all the things in the home. I try to pick a paint color that has a conversation with all the components in the room and using large swatches is the best way to accomplish this goal. I don’t like painting strips on the wall because I like to move the samples around the room to see the color in all the different lighting.

  •  Molding
We highlighted the slider by adding casement molding around the slider and a large header at the top. The white woodwork defines the window and draws the eye upward making the door look larger and the space look bigger. They also had crown molding installed which finishes the transition from wall to ceiling nicely. Crown molding also draws the eye upward and creates the optical illusion of height in a space.

  •  New light furniture
The homeowners purchased all new furniture that was light with warm wood, and it looks very pretty in the space. They purchased a buffet rather than a China hutch so they could add a pop of large art to the space. Notice that all the chairs are around the table. Placing all the chairs around the table makes the space look larger because there are less things floating around the room. I usually try to avoid placing chairs on each side of the buffet but if the table has too many chairs it can’t be avoided.

  •  Large art
The homeowners purchased two bird pictures by Art Lemay. They are great blue herons and white egrets. I like that the art is naturalistic, and we find those birds frequently hunting in our ponds and canals.

  •  Antique rug
The homeowners purchased a new 9×12 rug with an antique look. The rug could be larger now that the column is gone and there is no limitation on rug placement.
The pattern of the rug is soft, and the aging makes the rug look expensive with an heirloom quality.

  •  Large mirror
The wall beside the slider and opposite the large window in the kitchen always receives a mirror of some type. Often, the mirror is the Grand Palais which is an arch mirror that looks like a Palladian window. These mirrors are large and reflect all the light from the kitchen window back into the space. The homeowners did hang an arch mirror, but they went with a new one called the Monarch mirror and I like it! It has just a touch of a modern feeling but keeps the arch which reflects the arch window in the kitchen.

Call Ruth your full service decorator at: 352-804-2056
or Contact Us

Before and After Pics Below